Ame Futte Ji Katamaru
by Caelestis Kibeth
Summary: InutaishoIzayoi. "Living in the face of adversity, many things can prosper amazingly. And even if we never imagined the pain of that would be so great, never once did we regret a second of it."


A/N: I suppose that some of you are probably wondering what the title of this fic means. It's a Japanese saying meaning literally, "Rained-on ground hardens." To translate to _English_, one would be best to match it to one of our sayings: "Adversity builds character." I spent a long time trying to find a good phrase to function as this story's title, so I hope that it will serve me well.

This story is going to be a little different from the run-of-the-mill fic you see here. There's no(t much) Inuyasha/Kagome! Gasp! Actually, it doesn't have much to do with them at all (although the former has more than the latter to do with it). Be forwarned, there is a bit of Sesshoumaru/Rin, so if you don't like that then I beg that you not flame me for it. It's actually…something of a basis for this plot. And definitely this prologue.

Mainly, though, we will be focusing on the life and times of Inutaisho and Izayoi. Those of you that are especially perceptive can probably tell why I picked this phrase to use as the title from knowing that much and… I'm going off onto another topic. Anyway, this has been a long author's note and I suppose that I should probably just let you read the damned fic already, before I end up getting into something else entirely.

Enjoy! (and if you do, put me on your author list/alert or something, s'il vous plait! D It makes me happy, heh.)

**Ame Futte Ji Katamaru**

**Prologue:Their Last**

**By: Caelestis Kibeth**

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" ventured a soprano, female voice. It was the voice of the young girl Rin, who walked beside the great youkai. "Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked again, after receiving no answer.

"Rin! Why must you always be such a pest to our lord?" Jaken snapped at her. "Do you have nothing better to do than to bother him all day? Can you not tell that he is deep in thought and wishes not to be disturbed?"

Rin glared at him from around Sesshoumaru's front. The fifteen-year-old girl had grown a lot in the past seven years and she was no longer only a couple heads taller than the tiny green youkai. She now stood so that her head met Sesshoumaru's shoulder in height. She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "I'm just worried because he's been like this all day!" she exclaimed, Sesshoumaru paying no heed to the fact that they spoke as if he weren't there.

"Well, you needn't waste your time—the worry of a stupid mortal means nothing to so great a youkai as our lord!" retorted Jaken in his usual high-and-mighty voice. "Why, he didn't want your concern when he first met you and he certainly doesn't care for—"

"That's enough, Jaken," came Sesshoumaru's silky and regal voice. They were the first words he had spoken to anyone all day. Jaken seemed put out by being told to silence himself by his lord, but he did anyway without protest. Not turning to look at her, he spoke now to Rin. "Do not bother yourself. Although I…appreciate" –the words seemed difficult for him to tongue—"your concern, there is no basis for it."

Satisfied, Rin nodded and smiled. "Alright!" she exclaimed, happy to know that he was well. "By the way, Sesshoumaru-sama, will you tell Rin and Jaken where you are taking us today? We've been walking all day… It must be important, right, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

Sesshoumaru showed no sign of answering for a while and it was as if he had reverted back to his speechless state from before. Rin was patient, though, and the feel of the air around them seemed to keep the question up in the air and awaiting an answer. After a few long moments, he sighed slightly—almost unnoticeably. "Yes, Rin. Very important."

Sesshoumaru knew that Rin would not venture any further and he was correct. He was thankful for that, and that she was pleased with his answer. His destination was already approaching quickly enough, without having to speak about it on the way.

As the sun set set upon the three traveling companions, a strong and indescribable feeling rose up in his chest. It annoyed him, and yet he knew why it was there. The lands of the West were steadily approaching…

* * *

Dawn had just begun to break on the horizon when the inu youkai, the leader of the tiny group, stopped abruptly. Rin, whom had been lagging slightly behind Sesshoumaru for a few hours, bumped into his armored back and yawned, rubbing her eyes. She looked up to see his face, indifferent and icy as usual. "Are we here, Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked, ending with another yawn. It had been years since they had walked all night like that and she wasn't used to it. It was easy for the youkai men for they were just that, youkai. But a human girl such as herself could only take so much before her body felt the strain.

"Yes, Rin. This is where I have been leading you," he replied to her, staring out with amber eyes at the vast expanse of field that stood in front of them. A wind picked up the tall grass and bent it to point to the mountains on either side of the area. The scenery was beautiful, but both of his companions could not help but think that it didn't seem like much. Was this all that they had been journeying all night for?

Jaken stretched a bit and set down the Staff of Heads on the ground beside him. "My Liege, may I be so bold as to inquire as to what it is that we are here for?" he asked. Sesshoumaru did not respond, but Jaken observed a clawed hand go gracefully to his obi. With a slightly metal sound, the tall youkai grasped the hilt of his sword—but it was not the Tokijin that he reached for, but to Jaken's surprise the Tenseiga. Jaken blinked, wondering for only a split second before he realized…

"But, my lord!" he suddenly exclaimed, breaking the calm that the field set and leaving Rin confused. "You haven't been here in…in 200 years! Since the Inu no Taisho passed on and the mortal Lady Izayoi fled with—" Of course, he had not been in his lord's service at the time, but the story was legend…

"Jaken, you have said too much!" Sesshoumaru's cold voice bit. He was snarling a bit and Jaken recoiled in fear, picking up his Staff and putting it in front of him as if hiding behind it. Rin was still puzzled, but she placed a hand on his arm which somehow seemed to calm the inu youkai down a bit. However, she noticed that he was doing a very good job of avoiding her gaze, even as she touched him. If not for the rumble in his throat disappearing, no one would have known the better that he was affected by it at all.

'He has been like this towards me for so many days and nights now,' Rin thought, staring up at him slightly sadly. 'What a mystery our Sesshoumaru-sama is becoming to me. Even when we first met, I still felt as if I understood him more than I do now… Will my questions ever be answered?'

Even though he was not looking directly at her, Sesshoumaru could feel her minor melancholy so well that he could envision the look on her face. "I don't know, nor do I care to know what causes your sadness, Rin, so it is up to you to figure out a solution for yourself. We have work to do and such trivial emotions will only serve to hinder us."

Removing her hand, the young girl sighed and averted her gaze to the ground. "Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama. You're right," said Rin. She was embarrassed that he had caught her when she was always trying to be so strong for him. Jaken reminded her time and time again how Sesshoumaru looked down upon mortals and that she was lucky he had deemed her fit to be taken under his protection. Her life was now to serve this youkai and she wasn't sure how she would live if she was cast off for being a burden.

Glad—but not knowing why—that the brief contact was ended, Sesshoumaru continued what task he had intended upon completing. His hold tightening a bit on the hilt of Tenseiga, he unsheathed it in one lithe movement. "Stand back Jaken, Rin," he advised, and the two did as he told them obediently. They watched in awe as their master swung the blade.

Although he seemed to be cutting nothing but air, surprisingly the metal of the blade found something else there in front of him. Energy like lightning licked at the edges of Tenseiga as the sword fought with some invisible…something. "Jaken-sama, what sort of force is it that Tenseiga is encountering?" Rin asked, curious.

"It looks to me like there must be a very well hidden youkai barrier here," he replied, more sure of it than he sounded. 'Yes, it would make sense. So that no one but the rightful owner would find it… And that's just about right. Sesshoumaru inherited not only the sword, but the castle as well when the great Inu no Taisho perished' He would have told Rin exactly what he knew, but was frightened of being shouted at again and so assumed that silence would be the best path.

"Sou desu," Rin whispered quietly, her chocolate eyes transfixed on the barrier. It was strong—very strong if it was taking Sesshoumaru this much work.

After a few minutes, she noticed large, strong ripples in the air around them and stepped back a step more. A smirk formed on her lord's face and so she knew what this must mean—the barrier was falling to the might of the Tenseiga.

She was correct. In a blinding flash of light and a loud explosion, the mighty obstruction constructed by the Inu no Taisho began to diminish and right before their eyes a large building seemed to appear out of nowhere.

It was fashioned in the style of all lords' castles of the Sengoku Jidai, but no one could dispute that it was much, much more massive in size than the normal. It could probably have fit six _normal _castles inside it. Rin gasped and a smile spread across her face as she ran back up to join Sesshoumaru. "This is Sesshoumaru-sama's castle, is it not?" she asked, having assumed from the given circumstances and vague conversation. "This must be Sesshoumaru-sama's castle. Only Sesshoumaru-sama could own a castle this wonderful!"

"Hai," Sesshoumaru responded. "This is the castle of the lord of the Western lands." Rin smiled at this and Jaken scoffed at her excitement. He would never know why a great youkai such as Sesshoumaru would bother to take under his care this silly human girl. His master had proved to forever elude his youkai servant in such ways as this.

'Although I certainly don't see it, there must be something in her that he sees, which I obviously do not,' he pondered privately. 'He sure has kept her around for a long ti—'

"Aa! Matte yo, Sesshoumaru-sama!" he called out frantically, realizing that they were once again leaving without him. Scurrying, Jaken rushed to catch up to them just as they were crossing the threshold to the ancient and abandoned building.

It was a massive estate, covered in only the finest furnishings, expensive wall hangings and demon armor adorning the painted shoji walls. The wooden floors were polished to perfection, something that was not usually seen in a home, even if the inhabitants were affluent. Jaken briefly wondered why the inu youkai refused to reside here—but he already knew… He couldn't stand the thought that his father had allowed a human to.

'But how curious then, that he does allow Rin to wander these halls,' he thought, back to his previous wonderings. For if he really hated this place because it was tainted with the scent of a mortal being, then he surely would have barred the young girl's entrance.

"Sugoii! This place is wonderful," said the bane of Jaken's existence. "Rin has surely never been in such a lavish home as yours, Sesshoumaru-sama!"

"This is not my home," the inu youkai responded briskly. "It has not been for 208 years."

"Demo…nani? Why don't you live here any more? I would love to live in a place like this—the only home I have ever known was a tiny hut!"

He once again stalled speech as they approached a set of doors at the end of the hallway. He visibly hesitated for a moment—a very rare occurrence—but shook it off and reached out, sliding the shoji apart. In that one lithe movement, there was revealed a marvelous sight for his companions.

A bedroom, perfect as if never touched, lay before their amazed eyes. It was most obviously a noble's private chambers, or at least, had been one's. In the middle of the room, a silk futon with a fur—a wolf's pelt, it looked like—laying across the top; against the walls, a wardrobe, a dressing table, a long mirror, and an armoire, all made of pure gold. Titivating the walls were countless tapestries, wood block paintings, and decorative kimono, among many other expensive looking objects. However, when he entered, Sesshoumaru seemed to notice none of this.

Near the futon was a traditional low Japanese table, clear but for one thing. This the inu youkai picked up and held carefully in his hands as he observed it. It was a pair of scrolls of fine parchment, a very long one from what they could tell of the thickness. There was a red wax seal on each, one in the shape of a plum blossom and one in the shape of a sakura blossom. Hanging from the wooden sides of one were long, thin blue and white silk ribbons; the other, red and gold. But what really gripped Rin's interest was this: in the edges of one of the yellowed scrolls was stuck a hairpin, probably the most stunning piece of jewelry that she had ever seen. It was silver and sparkled with a plethora of diamonds and sapphires which were set to form the shape of an azalea.

"Oh, how beautiful!" she exclaimed, running up to Sesshoumaru and peering around him to get a better look. A ghost of a smirk crossed his face before it turned indifferent once more. Carefully, he removed the piece from the scroll and turned around to face her.

Lifting up the hairpin so that it glinted slightly in the light, the youkai gently placed it securely into the young girl's hair. She blinked and when he was done raised up a hand to touch it, her small fingers running along the surface and shaking slightly in awe. "For me?" Rin asked, though she needed not. This was the first time that Sesshoumaru had ever given her a gift…she was always told that she was not fit for such things from him because she was a mortal. That's what Jaken-sama always said, at least.

"My mother's," Sesshoumaru said simply, but the impact of the statement was unrivalled.

"W-What? B-But my lord!" Jaken began to protest. "Are you sure that you will allow a _mortal _such as Rin to wear your mother's jewels? What would Lady Nyorai say if she could see this—"

"Jaken, you make the mistake of believing that I care what my mother thinks," Sesshoumaru said coldly. "If Rin is fond of the piece then she may have it. I don't care what happens to that old woman's things and I never have."

The three fell into tense silence for a long moment before Sesshoumaru's voice broke through the quiet. "Come, let us leave here." With a slight wave of his hand, he commanded both Rin and Jaken to follow though he knew it was not needed.

"Yes, my lord!" Rin answered. As she left the castle beside Jaken, her hand refused to leave the hair pin…

* * *

With the setting of the sun behind the castle—which, so large was it, that they could still spot it from the middle of the woods—the group stopped. "It is going to be too dark to travel any longer," Sesshoumaru explained, though this puzzled Jaken. Sesshoumaru and himself—and even Rin with their help—were able to travel through the nighttime without mishap. Why was he suddenly so keen upon doing so?

The imp stole a glance behind him to the female of their caravan. He supposed that she probably would have inquired, were she not sound asleep on Ah-Un's back. Jaken spotted a glint in her raven locks and quickly turned away, feeling something between fury and jealousy.

'Why does Sesshoumaru-sama find it fit to present a mortal with a gift—a gift of his _mother's _no less—and yet neglects me in the same moment?' he thought. 'Have I not been a servant to him longer than Rin? Am I not of higher regard? It's preposterous!'

"Jaken!" Sesshoumaru's cold voice snapped him from his thoughts. "Can you not follow orders? Lead Ah-Un over and secure him to the tree!"

Shocked and embarrassed that he had missed his master's command, Jaken scrambled to do as he asked. However, there was another thing wrong with this. Sesshoumaru, even if he had to ask him twice, would normally have not sounded so biting in his command. He seemed…on edge about something.

Obediently, he used Ah-Un's chains to secure him to a tree in the small clearing and the youkai sat down, stirring Rin from her slumber as he did so. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she slid off it's back and onto the ground, patting it on the back briefly in gratitude. Then, she seemed to spot something across the way from them and stopped.

"Jaken-sama, why does Sesshoumaru-sama stare at his scroll like he does?" she asked, curious. "Is there something special about it?"

"You insolent child, of course there is!" he responded, angry, even though he didn't know for sure if his answer was truthful.

"Well, he just seems to be so intent upon looking at it…" Rin observed, watching him break the seal and hesitantly begin to read.

"Like I said, it is an important document belonging to someone who formerly resided in his castle. Sesshoumaru-sama probably knows the writer per—" Jaken's voice was cut off when he realized that he no longer held an audience. Rin was now scurrying over to Sesshoumaru in the way she always did, and she settled down beside the taiyoukai, looking inquisitively at the parchment roll. "Hey! Rin! Get back here before you disturb him!"

However, she wasn't listening to him and, surprisingly, Sesshoumaru didn't seem to mind her company beside the fire. He merely allowed her to sit at his side and peer over his shoulder to quell her curiosity. "Rin, there is something that I did not show you," he told her whilst Jaken made his way over to join in. She gave him an inquiring glimpse before her chocolate brown eyes went to his clawed hand. Sesshoumaru took her hand and deposited within it a tiny figuring. Opening it up, she realized that it was made out of wood and fashioned marvelously in the shape of a bird. Carved into the side of it was a set of kanji Rin had never seen before. Honestly, she couldn't read much at all, but what Sesshoumaru had taught her.

"Misosazai," Jaken read. He felt all too pleased with the fact that he had bested Rin, even if she didn't care. "Sazai… That means that it's supposed to be a wren."

"A Rin?" Rin asked naively. The alike sounds of the names confused her. "I'm not a bird."

Jaken laughed superiorly. "No, not a Rin, a _wren._That's spelled w-r-e-n. It's a type of bird, since you obviously don't know. You're such an ignorant child to be so unlearned!"

Rin glared. "I do too know what a wren is! It just sounds so much like my name!"

"Stop," Sesshoumaru commanded them both. He was becoming steadily fed up with their constant bickering, though he usually ignored it. When he was positive both were no longer compelled to speak, he took his turn. "This bird is another present for you. This one, however, did not belong to my mother. This belonged to my father's last mistress… Lady Izayoi." He had a difficult time saying the name, but Jaken could not blame him. It was legend the hatred he held for his father's mortal woman, the one who had stolen the house of the Inu no Taisho from his own mother's grasp. Even if he didn't care for his mother, Sesshoumaru still felt like when she had lost her title as Inutaisho's wife, he had lost something as well.

Rin looked at the doll in a new light at hearing this news, but it was gently removed from her small hands before she could even fully appreciate the beautifully-crafted features. She blinked, and looked up just in time to see Sesshoumaru extract a shiny piece of pink from his kimono and push it through the bird where the name was carved. In the background she heard Jaken sputter something similar to 'a Shikkon no kakera?', but wasn't paying attention. She was too entranced by the sight before her as the wooden statue transformed into a real bird right before her very eyes.

"Wow!" she exclaimed as the bird stretched its wings and fluttered over to sit on her outstretched finger. It chirped at her cheerily, recognizing its new master.

"Her name is Miso," Sesshoumaru explained. "She is something similar to a youkai puppet, but the statue is a form of her, not a device she uses. My father gave her to Izayoi-san as a wedding gift because he and I were gone all the time. He thought she would want a companion besides my wretched mother."

Rin looked hesitant for a moment. "Sesshoumaru-sama…you seem to speak much of your family lately. Is there any particular reason?" Miso flapped her wings, obviously elated to be able to move after so long being dormant and began to playfully peck at Jaken. The imp let out an exclamation of disgust and tried batting her away with the Staff of Heads, but to no avail. If Rin were not so concerned with the taiyoukai at the moment, she would have engaged in amusement furiously.

Sesshoumaru tried to shake off the question and the emotion from his cold amber eyes as best he could. "No, there is no reason. I have just found myself disgustingly reminiscent as of late. And in that weakness—" this he had a very difficult time forming on his tongue "—I decided that I wished to finally read these scrolls as my brother's mother suggested."

"But I thought she was dead. Rin recalls Jaken saying you had not been to the castle since Izayoi-sama moved in," she said, confused.

"I did speak with her once," he confided, for some unforeseeable reason feeling much more at ease speaking when it was only Rin listening. "When my half brother, Inuyasha, was merely a pup. Right after my father passed away defending her in his burning castle, Izayoi-san came to me for protection…" He continued telling his story. He had denied her the protection she wished, but wasn't as if she hadn't already known he would. Izayoi did not beg or plead, because she knew the reason without him saying it.

He hated mortals. Under no circumstances would he ever demoralize himself enough to take one under his care.

At this Rin frowned sadly and tried to ignore it as she had done so many times in the past. But for some reason, it was increasingly more difficult all of a sudden. Still, he continued speaking and paid her discomfort no mind so she had nothing to do except listen.

"When I told her this, Izayoi-san did nothing but smile," he said. How he hated that smile. How it haunted him! Even 200 years later, when she was long since gone and dead, the picture of her cradling her disgusting hanyou child and smiling at him so _sagely, _so horribly _knowingly, _followed him like a plague. Then, to add insult to injury, she gave him an order—an order from a human! "Her words instructed me to go back to the castle and find her rooms, part of the castle still standing after the blaze took it. She told me of a set of scrolls that I would find on her table."

"Are these the scrolls?" Rin asked, looking down. She received a gruff affirmative noise from the youkai beside her, telling her the question was stupid and she was wasting his time asking. Unabashed, she continued. "Why has it taken so long for you to follow through with what Izayoi-sama told you?"

"I am not finished, Rin," he told her, slight annoyance lying in a thin lining around his voice. Sure she was quiet, he went on. "She told me that I was not allowed to retrieve them until I figured out, as she called it, 'what I was missing'. She said that they would be guidance. Then she turned around and left. It was the last time I ever saw her, and the last time I saw Inuyasha for what would be nearly a hundred years."

"And you have found this thing you were missing, my lord?" Rin inquired.

The odd and indescribable feeling from before rose up in his gut for what was only a slightly intelligible reason. Not showing it, he scoffed, not wishing to answer truthfully to that question, especially to her. "No, I have only found that that cursed mortal will never leave me be until I find out what is in these scrolls that is so important." She tried not to display her disappointment in his answer and nodded instead.

"But…I thought she was dead? How can she bother you, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked in her usual, childish manner. She had grown in to a young woman, no doubt, but her disposition had seen her through these changes.

He growled quietly, annoyed by her naïve. "Never mind, Rin. Just allow me to read," he said sternly, dismissing his young charge. Nodding, she bowed respectfully and got up, leaving to play with her bird and Jaken.

For the longest time, Sesshoumaru sat there and watched her fool around under the stars. A look of what resembled regret crossed his face, if only for a second. Trying to forget what the unpleasant emotion felt like, the youkai turned instead to the scrolls.

Cracking the seal on the first, he began to read…

* * *

A/N: How sad is it that I only found a way to tie this prologue to the actual story when I was on page seven? -- Eh, read and review anyway. Sorry if it sucked. 


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